Feeding whilst on Box Rest

D

Daddy_Long_Legs

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 March 2008
Messages
532
Visit site
My big horse is coming back today after having a tie back operation. He will be on box rest for about 6 weeks. Any ideas on what to feed him?
I was thinking about Baileys Meadowsweet?
 
Just hay or haylage and very little else. If they have the wrong foodstuffs it can cause problems of having too much protein in their system and not being able to work it off. My mare was on box rest for months last year and I had to be very careful with her. She just had a little Happy Hoof once a day with her Oestress and that was it.
 
Hay. And if you need a bit of variety a very low calorie fibre feed like fast fibre or badminton fibre nuggets. i certainly wouldnt feed a course mix.
 
He's not a good doer and he's already lost a lot of condition in the last week. He was getting hay in the vet hospital. I might just give him some Chaff aswell.
 
I fed a scoop of conditioning cubes with some chaff just to keep mine happy lol he loves hard feed so felt quilty if he didnt get any at all :o and he lost weight easily too ... lots and lots of hay or haylage too
 
Last edited:
Be very careful about feeding any hard feed at all (other than low sugar chaff) as this can encourage azortoria. If he is on box rest for 6 weeks, please try to only feed hay (not even hayledge due to sugar) to avoid tying up as far as is possible).
 
surely your vets have given you a feed requirement in your discharge notes? again i would advocate only good hay and water until box rest has finished. once you can turn out again and resume normal activities you can then slowly re introduce bucket food. your horse has just had a GA and op, your vets are the ones to advise you on this. it is normal for your horse to have dropped condition after a proceedure like this. good luck.
 
Agree with the others that you should just be feeding hay. I have had a couple of horses on box rest that used to get stressed when they saw the other horses getting fed so I used to give them a very small handful of pasture mix or similar in a feed bucket to settle them as it was the routine they were used to. Once he is back home and on adlib hay he might stop losing condition.
 
If he will hold his weight on hay then that will be fine on its own. If he needs a hard feed then avoid the short chops like hifi as these will make him cough and possibly choke. He must be fed at ground level and needs his feed and hay making wet or damp. You will probably find that he was fed on nuts and haylage while he was at the vets. The key is making sure he has small amounts very often as he will be less likely to try and gobble.

Do not ever feed him soaked sugar beet as this makes horses that have had tie backs choke.


The key to feeding tie backs is remembering that they cant completly close their larynx so anything that is dusty or short cut to avoid as it makes a beeline down their trachea. Hope this helps.
 
They were only feeding him hay at the vets. I know about feeding him from the ground. Although the vets actually told me that feeding him beet pulp was fine.

I will stick to hay for the time being and see how I get on!! He only has to stand in for 4 weeks and then he can go out so I will start giving him a little feed then!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top